Cotton harvesters typically include a series of harvesting row units mounted at a front forward end of the cotton harvester for harvesting cotton from the plants as the harvester is driven across the field. To increase harvesting capacity, additional row units have been added across the front of the harvester.
Modern high capacity cotton harvesters are typically very large structures and include a high volume basket. Although the baskets of modem cotton harvesters have been increased, such increases in basket size have been offset by the supplementation of additional harvesting row units across the front of the harvester. Thus, the increased size basket on harvester still requires frequent emptying or dumping during a harvesting operation.
Dumping of cotton materials from the basket is a time consuming task that steals away from cotton harvesting operations. Still further increases to the size of the basket does not appear to be an available option to solve this problem. Further increases to the basket size are likely to adversely effect the transportability of the harvester across roads and fields. Also, and as will be appreciated, sized openings in barns, buildings and the like through which the harvester is driven limit further increases to the basket size.
Thus, there remains a need and desire for an improved method and apparatus for filling a cotton receiving basket to increase the total capacity thereof without increasing the size of the basket.